An unidentified man decided to end his life by jumping from the fifth floor of a popular mall in Sta. Cruz, Manila the other night.
Strangely enough, he landed on a five-year-old girl walking below and broke her arm.
Homicide investigators of the Western Police District described the suicide as about 20-25 years old, sporting a cropped-"military" haircut, of fair complexion and medium built.
Initial investigation showed that at about 6:55 p.m., witnesses saw the unidentified man, clad in denim shorts and a dirty white shirt clambering up the stainless railings near the elevator inside the Isetann Mall, when he suddenly jumped.
Police said the suicide landed on Paulina Ramos, of 806 Soler St., Quiapo, Manila who was walking with her mother on the mall’s ground floor.
Investigators said mall security guards tried but failed to subdue the suicide whom witnesses said acted strangely before his fatal jump.
Ramos sustained a broken arm and had to be taken to the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center. Though the suicide first landed on the girl, he was killed on the spot after he landed face first on the mall’s concrete floor.
Investigators hint that the still-unidentified victim could be a rehabilitating drug addict because of his short haircut.
Meanwhile, a year-old boy drowned yesterday morning in a swollen sewerage in Parañaque City.
Authorities identified the fatality as Mark Joseph Baguhin of Sitio Libo, Barangay Sto.Nino.
Case investigator Police Office (PO2) 2 Arthur Encallado said the boy’s mother, Nancy, found him floating near their house at around 10 a.m.
The boy was taken to the Parañaque Community Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.
Encallado said that yesterday’s heavy rains caused the water in the sewerage to rise to waist-deep level.
The boy may have ambled out of their house, which is located in a depressed area, unnoticed and slipped into the sewerage and drowned, Encallado said. – Mike Frialde and Nikko Dizon